by Lan Chan
The blow incapacitated him for about a second. Enough time for me to bolt out of the room and down the hallway. I had every intention of initiating the ward in the bedroom that I had set up to keep out malachim.
Intentions were great and all, but they didn’t necessarily work when you had a six-foot-four shifter who was impervious to magic charging at you. Using the mating link as a warning signal, I flattened myself against the wall at the very last second. Max sailed past me, hit the wall on the other side of the bedroom, pivoted, and came straight back. Slapping my hand over the ward, I completed the circle a breath before he bashed headfirst into the blood barrier. The impact against my magic had my molars rattling. It wouldn’t hold him for long. But it would be enough time for me to figure out what I wanted to do.
He struck out at the ward. That same lightning I had seen crackling over his skin now spiralled through the circle. It seared my magic, heated up my blood, and made me wince. He stopped hammering at the ward when he realised it was hurting me.
“Let me out.”
“Sure,” I said. “Just as soon as I’m outta here.”
“Don’t you dare set foot out that door.”
“Or what?” I said. “What are you going to do?”
He pressed his palm against the ward. The physical contact manifested in the same type of burning as when Charles touched the demon blade. The bitter scent of scorched skin filled the room. The blood barrier ate up magic at an alarming rate and siphoned it through to me as essence. I gasped, terrified that I was hurting him in return. I needn’t have worried. His claws sliced out. They scraped slowly against the barrier. He shoved his fist into the ward once and locked his eyes on me. “Kasarah,” he said. Break. A word of power.
Oh hell! The ward disappeared.
“How did you…” I backed up.
“You and I went to the same Academy.” His voice was no longer quivering with rage. Instead, it was steeped in lethal potency.
“But you’re–”
When he grabbed my arm this time, I was too stunned to dodge. “What?” he baited. “What am I?”
Swallowing the wonder in my voice, I asked, “You can use magic?”
He smirked, backing me up into the wall, and folding his big frame around me. “No. I can counteract magic. The words just focus my thoughts. They amplify what’s already there.” A smile curved his lips.
My mind rifled through the instances where I’d seen shifters at school using words of light. Their natural shields against magic meant that their use of words of light and power were weak at best. Max was not weak. And now he’d caught hold of me.
We seemed to have that thought at the same time. He just wasn’t feeling very charitable about it. “It’s because of you that I can do it,” he said. “Because of the mating link.” His nose scrunched. “Do you get off on seeing me lose control?”
It was the last thing I expected. “Beg your pardon?” He splayed the palm that wasn’t holding my arm by my side against my throat. A lick of gold swept across the base of his irises.
“I’ve tried really hard to be nice,” he said, “But I’m not a kitten on a leash. You keep jerking me around like I don’t have claws and teeth.”
I saw that insanity was beginning to take hold of him. “I didn’t–”
He pressed his thumb into the column of my throat. The calloused pads on his fingers lightly compressed. It wasn’t my airways that he was constricting. The touch of his fingers created an unbearable friction against my arteries, making me feel like the blood rushing to my brain was bathed in fire.
“Then how come I can smell some kind of potion on your skin?” he snarled. “And that dead-vampire walking was covered in alcoholic stink!”
I swallowed and felt my throat bob against his palm. His mouth was just a fraction above my temple, his breath searing my skin. I reached up to remove his fingers, my hand trembling because if I didn’t get free soon, I was going to pass out.
He stepped into me. My cheek mashed up against his chest. Too close. I couldn’t get enough air. “Max.”
He growled in my ear. “Speak,” he said. “Now!”
“Stop ordering me around!”
I tried to claw at his hand around my throat. With almost an imperceptible speed, he let go of my throat, grabbed both my hands, and pinned them behind me. “Talk!”
Short of frying him to a crisp with his own blood, there was nothing more I could do to overpower him. I hated being so vulnerable. My own growl was full of blunt human frustration.
“Sophie!”
It came from the heart of the lion. It was only then that I noticed that he was shaking too. I’d thought it was my nerves betraying me, but every muscle in his body was wired.
“Diana slipped me a potion to calm me down,” I said.
“Why?”
In the gap between his hip and arm, I saw the remnants of my hard work splattered all over the destroyed kitchen. Worst of all, the double doors of the ingredients closet were caved in. No doubt some of the jars were broken too.
“Why do you think?” I snapped. “Because I love to take potions against my will and wake up to stupid self-destructive vampires ruining all my hard work!”
I struggled to get free. He clasped both my hands together with his left one. His right hand moved up to my shoulder where the bow was slipping down again. “Why did you do all this?”
“Are you bloody dense or what?” I grit.
“Yes.” There wasn’t any humour in it. Just the brutal honestly of a predator pushed to the limit of his control. “I’ve been running on instinct for so long, I’m on edge every second of the day. Right now, the lion wants out. All I know is that that vampire tried to creep on my friend and now he’s touched my mate. The only reason he’s not already dead is because I know he kept you safe when I couldn’t. So choose your words carefully, Sophie darling. His life depends on it.”
He plucked at the end of the bow, pulling the strap until the knot untied. Both sides unfolded, exposing my shoulder. Pressing his palm against my bare skin, his fingers closed over the back of my shoulder, his thumb brushing over the curve of my breast. Neither of us pretended not to notice how big his hand was. If he wanted to, he could brush his thumb over the aching point of my nipple.
The strain of the hard bulge in his jeans that crushed me to the wall said he really, really wanted to. But the iron-clad leash was around the lion again.
“I cooked you dinner,” I said as heat bloomed on my cheeks. Feeling stupid, I tried to turn away, but he snagged my chin and turned my head back. “I was going to call you, but then Andrei appeared drunk off his face and babbling something about Kai. And now –” I sniffed, “–now my house is destroyed.”
I hadn’t meant to voice that last part. It was probably materialistic, but the kitchen was so beautiful and now it was ruined. Shifters were nosy jerks. I’d had to share everything growing up. They found everything of value that I tried to hide and played with it anyway.
Max quirked a brow. “Your house?”
“Yes!” I pouted. “You gave it to me! So it’s mine.”
“I can rebuild it.”
“No. It’s not the same. I hate Andrei and I hate you and I wish all you supernat–”
That was about as far I got before he kissed me.
The world exploded in a rush of colour and light. I had about a millisecond of resistance in me before my mouth opened. Max smirked against my lips as he parted them with his tongue. His kiss was a possessive brand, the leash finally breaking to give way to a hunger for touch that had been riding him for too long. A flood of warmth echoed through my chest. The mating link flared in anticipation.
Letting go of my wrists, Max scraped his hands down my sides, over my hips, and gripped the back of my thighs. With one effortless motion, he hoisted me up and settled himself between my legs. I wrapped my arms around his neck, back arching into him when the stubble on his chin scraped against my neck.
Behind his back, I saw
the mess of abandoned food and startled. “Hey!” Pulling back, I looked into his dancing eyes that had gone completely gold. “You’re supposed to eat first!”
Wicked. That smile was wicked as he said, “Are you sure that’s what you want?”
He started striding into the bedroom with me still wrapped around his waist. And he made good on his promise that I would be more than happy to surrender to an alpha.
46
I woke to the sound of mini-explosions and shot out of bed. My elbow hit Max’s chin, the pain much more acute for me. Scrambling around in the dark, I grabbed his T-shirt and hauled it over my head as I ran through the house.
“Sophie! What the hell?”
He came barging out of the front door after me but came to a halt when he saw me standing in the garden bed at the front of the house, while all around me, dozens of Sophie flowers burst open in a miniature display of fireworks in all the colours of the rainbow. I’d planted them and cheated a little to get them to bloom quickly. Lex would have been severely disappointed with me for using Fae magic. But that didn’t take away from the moment of pure amazement as the flowers she had created for me put on a display more incredible than anything Gaia might have constructed herself.
I smiled at that. Perversely, Lex and Gaia had a pretty frosty relationship. I imagined our deity wouldn’t be very pleased if she knew about these plants. After the last of the display died down, the flowers scattered seeds everywhere and the heads withered.
Max was leaning against the veranda, his chest glistening from sweat in the moonlight. “What the heck kind of plant did she make?” he said.
“The Sophie kind. You know the kind that is pretty and sweet until it explodes in your face.” I grinned at him, and he shook his head, amusement in his eyes. At the time, Lex had said it was a representation of my prowess in the Potions lab. I suspected she might have been making some kind of point.
As the excitement began to subside, the cold settled on my skin. “Come inside,” Max said when he saw me shiver.
I shook my head, suddenly rooted to the spot. “Sophie?” A pause. “We’ll find them.”
It was a testament to the accuracy of the link that he knew where my thoughts lay. When my mind tried to assure me that that was exactly why he would die, the link pushed back against it. Right now, I had other problems to contend with. When it looked like I wouldn’t be going anywhere, Max stepped into the bed and grabbed me.
But rather than force me into the house, he sat down in the dirt and set me on his lap. How he’d managed to get his jeans on so quickly was beyond me. “Talk to me,” he said.
I laid my head on his chest, feeling torn in two directions. “Don’t get angry, okay?”
His brows knitted together. “No deal.”
“Max!”
“You can’t start a conversation with ‘don’t get angry’ and expect me to agree with it.”
“Well, then I guess we’re not having this conversation!”
“Sophie.” I didn’t say a word. He huffed. “Fine. I’ll try. But no promises.”
That was truly as good as I was going to get. “I was supposed to help her,” I said, feeling my throat beginning to close over. “She asked me for help. And instead of focusing on the mission, I went and got myself mated and denied what I am without achieving anything. I hate that I’m so weak.”
I thought the growl that snapped out at me was his reaction to my comment about the mating, but when I looked into his eyes, they were ringed in gold and looking at me like I was deranged. “Do you want to know what strength is?” he asked me.
Mesmerised by the intent in those eyes, I nodded.
“After Kai’s family were murdered, I wanted to go after Jacob and the demons. Kai and I were ready to go hunting when the Council got in his ear about being the last of his line. He was so pissed, I knew he wanted to just leave in the middle of the night. I was young and too stupid to understand how to keep a lid on my own feelings. But Kai chose to stay, even though he hated every second of it. Not only that, he agreed to a bond with Chanelle for the good of the Nephilim. When we got older, he decided to join the Academy, even though as the last remaining Nephilim of his line, there was absolutely zero expectation for him to attend school. He did it because he wanted to show everyone that integration was a necessity. He did it for Jacqueline and Cassie.
“I ribbed him mercilessly about it until I realised how much the pressure of being Malachi Pendragon was killing him. And still he stayed. At any time, he could have pulled the plug on it all and nobody could or would have said a thing. But he didn’t. Not until Lex arrived and changed everything.
“You bit your tongue for your whole childhood to make other people happy. Noah treated you like shit for years and you hardly complained. The whole Academy shunned you, and even after you saved their lives and got no thanks for it, you didn’t let it make you bitter. Your best friend is just about the most reckless, loud-mouthed little shit on the planet, and you stick by her side no matter what crazy schemes she comes up with. And now she’s run off and you’re left behind to pick up the pieces. You didn’t have to return to the Reserve. You didn’t have to do any of this, but you’re still here.
“I’ve had six months of being the one to stay behind while others go off and fight. I don’t know if I can stand another day of it. If I never see a desk again, it’ll be too soon. Strength isn’t just about how much magic you have or how hard you can hit. So stop throwing that shit around like you’re not good enough. You’re the strongest person I’ve ever known besides Kai.”
I curled into a ball, at once warmed by his words and hating them. “It’s not easy,” I said.
He held me tighter. “I know. That’s what makes it so incredible. Charles and I would be a million miles away by now. I keep thinking I’ll fall asleep and you’ll be gone.”
I nuzzled into his chest. “I’m never leaving you.”
“Damn straight.”
I looked at my hands. “I wish there was something I could do. But I’m human. Not touched by a seraphim or anything else. I don’t have the strength to do what she asked. Even if I gave up my soul–”
He growled at me for real this time. The nip on my earlobe was unexpected, making me jerk upright. “Hey!”
He fixed me with that alpha stare. “On what planet do you convince yourself that Lex would ever want you to throw away your life?”
“But she said–”
“I don’t care what she said! She loves you more than anything. Sometimes I even hate her, because in a choice between us, I’m not so sure you’d pick me. She would never in a million years ask you to risk your life like that. So stop acting like dying is the only thing you’re capable of doing.”
“That’s all the alchemy is good for.”
Blood and death. They went hand in hand. At least in my ancestry. I fisted my hands together, feeling nauseated at the thought of my great-grandfather promising my soul to Apollyon in exchange for power.
Max grunted in repudiation. “Really? Because you’ve transmuted a malachim’s essence, created a substitute for supernatural healing, and put the broken pieces of the Reserve back together.”
I swallowed. Now that he’d brought it up, I wanted to broach the subject. “Since we’re talking about transmuting malachim essences...”
He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “You want to try it on Professor McKenna.”
“Yes, please.”
“Why are you asking me?”
I scratched at my wrist. “Because if something goes wrong, I might need you to pull me out.”
“And what if I say no.”
I pursed my lips. “Are you going to say no?”
“As if I have a bloody choice!”
“Are you saying no, Max?”
He got to his feet, lifting me up at the same time. “I suspect that I’m not going to be able to say no very often anymore.” He tugged me inside. “Come and make it worth my while.”
I
hadn’t counted on there being such an audience when I attempted to free Professor McKenna. My disconcerted look was only second to the irritation that marred Max’s face. Jacqueline raised her brow at us from the door of the private infirmary room.
“What did you expect?” she asked. Behind her, pretty much all of the faculty, the heads of the elite guard factions, and the Council were jostling with each other to get a peek.
It wasn’t long before Max’s temper exploded. “Out!” he shouted at everybody. Jacqueline and Professor Mortimer squeezed into the room which was already half filled with shifters. Durin was doing his best to be unobtrusive in the corner, a difficult feat when he took up half the room.
Max shut the door in their faces and then stood leaning against it. His scowl was going to become permanent if things kept up. “The whole point was to keep this quiet!” he snarled at Jacqueline.
She shrugged. “I only told Bruce.”
Professor Mortimer rubbed the back of his neck. “Oh, well I only told Peter. And he of course told Thalia.”
“Of course,” Max said.
Jacqueline gave him a quizzical look. “Didn’t you tell Durin?”
“I had to! He’s my alpha!”
“Alright!” I said, rubbing my temple. “Let’s just say that you’re all terrible at keeping things quiet.”
“What did I do?” Yolanda muttered. “I didn’t tell anyone.”
Max huffed at her, but she only smirked. I rubbed my damp palms on my jeans. It was all well and good to suggest doing this, but now that I was faced with the reality of it, I wasn’t sure what I was doing exactly.
There was a very polite knock on the door. Max’s eyes turned to gold instantly. He stuck his head out and there was a build-up of a growl but then Professor Suleiman’s very calm voice was heard.
“Actually,” I said, “can you please let him in?”
“There’s no room!” Durin complained.
“You’re very welcome to leave.”
He grunted. “One day soon we’re going to need to have a conversation about who is alpha here.”
